My random ramblings and stray reflections about anything from social justice and global/international issues to internship/job postings peppered with the occasional event info that might interest friends and foes alike.

Saturday, September 23, 2006

I mentioned a conference in DC that Americans for Informed Democracy organized a few weeks ago on the 5th anniversary of the WTC attacks. Fortunately, I got to attend and actually take a more active role than that which I anticipated, but it was well worth it.

I got the opportunity to introduce South Asian rock legend Salman Ahmad when the conference started and after the closing of the event, was whisked away to the CNN studios for an interview on CNN International. What a weekend that was!

As mentioned before, the 9/11 plus Five topic has generated much interest from all quarters and present at the conference were some people who were covering it for their media outlets. This link will take you to a PBS Newshour webpage where some youth are discussing their views on the state of affairs five years after the tragedy that befell all Americans on 9/11.

I promised to post something on this topic last week and now it just seems like it's not newsworthy anymore, considering the anniversary was commemorated almost two weeks ago.

Irrespective of this lapse of time - and my indolence! - I will go ahead and provide my readers with this guest blog posting of mine on ThePeopleSpeak.org website. It's a project run by the United Nations Foundation (UNF) and Victoria Baxter at UNF is the coordinator there. It's been a real pleasure working with her and her intern, George Lomsadze, as they try to make global issues accessible to all people and have the assistance of many influentials in the process.

Frankly, I am quite privileged to have my writing featured on the same forum where Newt Gingrich and Jane Holl Lute (UN ASG for Peacekeeping Operations) have their writing published. I just hope the message gets across and that we learn important and crucial lessons instead of repeating history.

Zeeshan's shared items

Zeeshan Suhail is a communications professional with several years of experience in international private sector and development organizations. He is a Board Member for the Washington, D.C.-based Americans for Informed Democracy and the New York City-based World Faith. His articles on international development and Western-Muslim world relations have been featured in media outlets internationally. Zeeshan has advanced leadership certifications and has been selected as a Carnegie New Leader by the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs and a Muslim Leader of Tomorrow by the Cordoba Initiative.
Zeeshan holds an undergraduate degree in International Business from Queens College-CUNY (where he was also the first Muslim Vice President of student government in the college's then 35 years of student government history) and a graduate degree in International Relations from the Graduate Center-CUNY. Zeeshan is fluent in Urdu, and proficient in other South Asian languages and enjoys independent cinema, old South Asian film songs and traveling. He is based in Lahore, Pakistan.